


Golden Boy

by scalphunter



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Comrades, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 15:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6333733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scalphunter/pseuds/scalphunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘Poe Dameron is one ace pilot and probably the best leader the Blue Squadron could have,’ Jess says to Finn, all sincerity and solemnity and for all of two seconds Poe believes that’s all she’s going to say. ‘And his face – and the rest of him – is all over Resistance campaigns’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Boy

**Author's Note:**

> First work for the SW:TFA fandom and hopefully not the last. Wanted to delve a little into the character of Poe.

It’s one of those nights. No smoke in the sky, no alarms blaring, for once in a long while there seems to be peace. Poe’s not naïve, he’s been running on the ground and flying in the sky for too long to be seduced by a nice evening. The Hangar Bay, his personal area, is pin-drop quiet. Usually there’s the clatter of equipment, the humming of engines, the racket of voices, the chatter of a droid or three. But BB-8 is teaching Finn how to understand droids back at dorms (which is endearing and extremely useful after the astromech lost the sass and actually decided to help); Iolo wanted an early sleep before his test tomorrow, Teffer is probably in a cantina after asking everyone if they wanted to join him, Jess is with Snap, and Kare is on a date with one of the weapons officers. Rather ironically, it’s the pretty brother of the lovely Kaylah who he spent an athletic night with before he got sent off Jakku and it all did a nosedive from there. He hums, wrings out the rag into the bucket, and rubs at the dirt under the foot grove of his X-Wing.

‘Hey Boss’ a voice echoes, and there’s only one woman in the galaxy who calls him that and not _Commander_ or _Leader_.

‘Jess, what are you doing down here?’ Poe twists around and smiles.

‘Well, Snap went to the mess hall and I thought I’d see if the engineers re-plated the underside of the nose’ Jess gestures to her X-Wing whose front is covered with sheer blue sheeting.

‘If you took more care during the drill in your landing-‘ he teases, relishing in her petulant scowl.

‘Oh, oh no, no, I’m not getting insulted’ Jess affronts and Poe acquiesces and walks over to her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She knocks her head on the bulk of his shoulder and peers up at him. ‘You okay?’

‘I’m fine’ he assures, however something wavers in his voice or she’s just that good in reading him because-

‘What’s wrong?’

He sighs and after a good minute’s pause: he shakes his head.

‘It’s the anniversary of my mom’s last mission’ he mutters and there’s a burning in his throat, he swallows through it, the feeling hitting every rib on the way down and spreading.  He was nine-years-old, remembering her leaving, seeing her smile with all the love in the world, salute him, and walk away. For years he had restless dreams, watching her back retreating, desperately running after her and never catching up. He doesn’t dream of her anymore, he stores memories of happier times and replays them in empty hours. One example was how he learned to fly with his mom’s old RZ-1 A Wing: a stripped down, lightweight Starfighter, with modified handling. He got the speed up, so pleased with himself, and he felt it lift of the ground, his six-year-old self marvelling in the swell of pride. Then he stuttered and he came down in chug-chug motions, sliding along the ground, his mom’s laughter as he pushed open the top to clamber out.

Jess softens, leaning away slightly, and claps him on the back.

‘Poe-‘

‘Thanks’

‘I didn’t do anything’ and she has this crease at the corner of her mouth he’s seen when she’s in training simulators.

‘That’s why I said it, kid’ he jostles her, ‘Come on, I’m starving and unless you want to go for a race…?’ he jerks his head towards the bay doors.

‘To the mess hall!’ she says loudly and shoots him a friendly grin. The heels of her boots quietly click against the flooring and so out they walk.

 

 

 

‘And so this idiot here goes, ‘Oh I am more than fine, sweetheart’ and then trips over a monitor and his ass meets the floor’ Snap regales, and Jess snorts into her drink. Finn laughs, bordering on giggles, and Poe nods, taking in the embarrassment in full easy fashion. This is what happens when he takes Snap up on an offer to join him for a drink, the man wrangling Finn to trying out a new environment. _Twix’s Cantina_ is one of the liveliest, not the cleanest, places on Da’Qar. It’s great.

‘Smooth Poe’ Finn says.

‘I am. That was a rare occurrence, I’m talking one in a billion chance, and thank you Snap for telling my finer moments to our newest friend’

‘Hey, he’s got to know how much of a dork you are sometimes’

‘You can see the love, can’t you?’ Poe deadpans to Finn, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and lifting his bottle of Alderaanean ale to his mouth, licking at the warm inside of the glass rim.

‘I think that’s exactly it’ Finn agrees. Snap leans to clap the man on the shoulder, amiable and genuine.

‘He gets it! The boy understands. I’ve known you for years, buddy’

‘But Poe is pretty great… for a Fly Boy’ Finn says and then smirks as Poe’s friends make like children and holler back, like the rest of the cantina is irrelevant to this small, wobbly round table where – if he’s being honest – Poe’s favourite people in at least three systems are lounging.

‘You gonna take that talk, boss?’ and he spots the mischief in Jess’s eyes.

Poe straightens up, squares his shoulders, levels his gaze to look at each one of them, lastly lingering his look on Finn whose grin has diminished, as if he’s actually worried he’s insulted Poe and is about three seconds away from apologising. He’s been told (by General Organa… and C3-P0) that this particular look can ‘ _humble the most arrogant’_.

‘I think you should be getting me another drink, Hot-Shot’ Poe says, smiling wide as Finn’s face lights up in relief, and he picks at the edge of the table, his own sign of embarrassment.

He likes Finn. He likes the guy so much. You can run numbers, statistics, make probabilities and yet even with your timing, there’s always that something that throws you for the loop. Poe lives for those moments and Finn is the embodiment of it. If he’d ran faster, jumped better, he might not have found Finn. The guy who made a choice – who turned against everything he knew and say ‘this is wrong’. Teffer had said during Finn’s unnatural sleep (the guy took on Kylo Ren hand-to-hand!) that only Poe would go out on a mission, get captured by a Sith, get rescued by a Stormtrooper and make a friend out of him, crash and then get rescued again. He’s not sure he should analyse that too closely, or offer up his life stories for the Republic holo-series network.

‘Actually next round’s on me - same for all of you?’ Snap asks, scraping his chair as he stands. Poe salutes his bottle to his second in command and watches as he retreats, jostling his way through the crowd until his broad back is completely swallowed up.

‘So you’re still rooming with the ‘Golden Boy’ of the Resistance’

‘Golden Boy?’ Finn asks, brows furrowed in obvious confusion.

‘I still can’t believe you bought one of those posters’ Poe mutters and Jess shrugs.

‘But you’re so pretty and fearless’ she’s mocking him now and Finn’s curiosity, his need to find out, is hovering in the close-quarter air, Poe knows any second he’s going to say-

‘What?’

There you go.

‘Poe Dameron is one ace pilot and probably the best leader the Blue Squadron could have,’ Jess says to Finn, all sincerity and solemnity and for all of two seconds Poe believes that’s all she’s going to say. ‘And his face – and the rest of him – is all over Resistance campaigns’

‘You’re like a poster-boy? A-what do you call them? Pin-up for the cause?’ and Finn’s voice is so reverent, not disgusted, he looks at Poe with an expression so fond Poe’s fingers twitch under the strange scrutiny.

‘Yeah, I started getting involved not that long after the General recruited me, when I was a teenager during my early training, years and years ago now obviously. Thought I could inspire and so forth’ Poe rolls his hand around in the air once, twice, and the motion slows. ‘I didn’t quite realise what that would mean’

‘If you got to the archives on a pad, search for Poe and scroll down and you’ll find some interesting things’

‘Jess, stop talking like that’ Poe says it harsher than he means, his jaw feels looser, like words will come tumbling out of their own accord.

‘Okay’ Jess says slowly, leaning away, ‘Just being silly, sorry boss’ she gets up, digging around in her pants pocket and revealing a cigarette pack, waving it.

‘Jess-‘ Poe starts because he feels like a complete shit and he loses the sight of her shiny black hair, knowing she’s heading outside. He turns back to Finn who raises his eyebrows.

‘I don’t know why I snapped at her. I’m such an asshole’ Poe runs a hand down his face. Fuck, he’s so _tired._

‘Here we go guys! Here’s – where’s Jess?’ and that’s Snap, holding a black tray full of drinks.

‘She went for a smoke’ Finn states, pointing vaguely in the direction of the far doors, barely visible under the low lights.

Poe reaches out; the pads of his fingers come away wet from the cold beer bottle so he lets his hand drop. Nudging his chair away he stands and coughs, avoiding the heavy gaze of Finn.

‘Getting some fresh air’ he says, lying, and turning away from the table.

He manoeuvres himself through the throng, shoulders clunking into bodies of various shapes and sizes, flashing a guilty smile or three until he hits the doors. Night air spreads over him, cooling his brow, and he rolls his neck, shutting his eyes.

‘You know Dameron, you really should change that cologne’

He can’t help it, he snorts a laugh, and opens his eyes to Jess partially twisted around eyeing him.

‘Well the girls like it’ and Jess smirks, ‘The boys do too’ he adds, as if she didn’t already know.

‘Oh well if it gets you laid then by all means’ she circles her wrist, tapping the end of the cigarette to send a sprinkling of ash to the ground.

Poe walks over, hands supporting him on the low wall, looking out to the low rise lake, its waters barely moving.

‘Sorry about earlier’

‘I get it now. It’s alright’

‘It’s not that I don’t like the campaigns, I mean – I volunteered for them – just it’s the sexualisation which I know is hypocritical of _me_ -‘

‘So it’s the general, open sexualisation of who you are you don’t like. Reducing you to the ‘Golden Boy’?’ Jess asks and Poe nods slowly. She makes a noise, a small scratchy hum. ‘I told Finn ‘cause he’s close to you, not ‘cause he’s some random newbie’ she explains, and Poe knows, he and Jess’ relationship has always been simpatico.

‘You got a spare fag?’ he asks.

‘Thought you quit?’ she narrows her eyes at him, giving him a side-long look. ‘You told the General you’d quit’.

‘I did – technically I still have. This will be my first one in four months’ he says, defensive.

He doesn’t want to mention about Rey and Finn both hiding his cigarettes, telling him ‘no’ when he asked for one (or two). Rey had tried, bless her, to use a command on him to make his hunger go away. Fortunately – or unfortunately – the command barrier evaporated when Rey returned to her training with Skywalker.

‘No way’ Jess shakes her head, twirling her trigger finger into her hair, ‘I’m not spending credits only have to give one of these to a recovering addict’.

‘You smoke more than I used to!’ he exclaims, because he was never an addict, he just decided after his quarterly physical very nearly sent him sprawling to the floor, he should ease up a little. See, not an addict.

‘This is about you Poe, not me’

‘Yeah I know’ he mutters, biting down on his lower lip and pulling at it with his thumb.  

Jess takes a lengthy drag, the cigarette down to hardly anything, and flicks it into the clear tray which sucks the butt down instantly. She breathes out, tendrils of smoke billows from her lips and she kicks at his left ankle lightly. He does it back, retreating away from the wall.

‘I have the sudden urge to tell Finn all about Snap and me at the Academy’ he muses coyly and Jess grins.

‘I’m down for that, boss’

Poe holds open the door for Jess who rolls her eyes at him yet still does go inside first.

‘-it’s not as if we didn’t think we’d win the race but-‘ is all he catches of Snap’s story to Finn.

‘Don’t you forget Wexley you agreed’ he cuts in and both men turn to him happily.

‘You entered an illegal pod race?’ Finn asks and he has the same affectionate, awed expression with wide eyes that Poe sits down, gets comfortable.

‘I don’t know what Snap’s been saying but let me tell you properly’ Poe begins, the touch of smugness tugging at him smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I succeeded, please leave kudos/comments if you liked it.


End file.
